To get into all things Irish for March, I thought it fitting to share with you the origins of the well-known ballad “Barbara Allen.”

Because it was so well-known and was passed down through the centuries, you can imagine that there are many, many versions to be found.  I learned this tune via Jean Ritchie’s recordings, but something I found when I researched Jean was her recordings she made in Ireland, England and Scotland in the early 1950s when she was on a Fulbright scholarship to find the origins of her Appalachian family’s collected songs.

She found versions of the song in all of the countries she visited and placed the recordings she made on a series of albums she called “Field Trip.” 

This recording of the song was sung here by Sarah Makem and is found on “As I Roved Out: Field Trip-Ireland.”

Here on another disk called “Field Trip: Various Artists” is the song called  “Barbara Allyn” sung by Elizabeth Cronin, also from Ireland:

On that same album is Jean’s own recording, re-named for her Ritchie family version as “Barbry Ellen”:

For more background on this tune, read about it on Wikipedia:

Here are lyrics for the song that are the earliest recorded group, from 1690:

“Barbara Allen’s cruelty: or, the young-man’s tragedy” (c.1690), the earliest “Barbara Allen” text:

In Scarlet Town, where I was bound,
There was a fair maid dwelling,
Whom I had chosen to be my own,
And her name it was Barbara Allen.

All in the merry month of May,
When green leaves they was springing,
This young man on his death-bed lay,
For the love of Barbara Allen.

He sent his man unto her then,
To the town where she was dwelling:
‘You must come to my master dear,
If your name be Barbara Allen.

‘For death is printed in his face,
And sorrow’s in him dwelling,
And you must come to my master dear,
If your name be Barbara Allen.’

‘If death be printed in his face,
And sorrow’s in him dwelling,
Then little better shall he be
For bonny Barbara Allen.’

So slowly, slowly she got up,
And so slowly she came to him,
And all she said when she came there,
Young man, I think you are a dying.

He turnd his face unto her then:
‘If you be Barbara Allen,
My dear,’ said he, ‘Come pitty me,
As on my death-bed I am lying.’

‘If on your death-bed you be lying,
What is that to Barbara Allen?
I cannot keep you from [your] death;
So farewell,’ said Barbara Allen.

He turnd his face unto the wall,
And death came creeping to him:
‘Then adieu, adieu, and adieu to all,
And adieu to Barbara Allen!’

And as she was walking on a day,
She heard the bell a ringing,
And it did seem to ring to her
‘Unworthy Barbara Allen.’

She turnd herself round about,
And she spy’d the corps a coming:
‘Lay down, lay down the corps of clay,
That I may look upon him.’

And all the while she looked on,
So loudly she lay laughing,
While all her friends cry’d [out] amain,
‘Unworthy Barbara Allen!’

When he was dead, and laid in grave,
Then death came creeping to she:
‘O mother, mother, make my bed,
For his death hath quite undone me.

‘A hard-hearted creature that I was,
To slight one that lovd me so dearly;
I wish I had been more kinder to him,
The time of his life when he was near me.’

So this maid she then did dye,
And desired to be buried by him,
And repented her self before she dy’d,
That ever she did deny him.

 

As always, thanks for reading! 
Love and Blessings,

Susie

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Award-winning recording artist, Broadway singer, journalist, educator and critically-acclaimed powerhouse vocalist, Susie Glaze has been called “one of the most beautiful voices in bluegrass and folk music today” by Roz Larman of KPFK’s Folk Scene.  LA Weekly voted her ensemble Best New Folk in their Best of LA Weekly for 2019, calling Susie “an incomparable vocalist.”  “A flat out superb vocalist… Glaze delivers warm, amber-toned vocals that explore the psychic depth of a lyric with deft acuity and technical perfection.”  As an educator, Susie has lectured at USC Thornton School of Music and Cal State Northridge on “Balladry to Bluegrass,” illuminating the historical path of ancient folk forms in the United Kingdom to the United States via immigration into the mountains of Appalachia.  Susie has taught workshops since 2018 at California music camps RiverTunes and Vocáli Voice Camp.  She is a current specialist in performance and historian on the work of American folk music icon, Jean Ritchie.  Susie now offers private voice coaching online via the Zoom platform.   www.susieglaze.com